


visions are seldom all they seem

by kurusui



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, i regret this so bad, kingdom au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:49:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1848496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurusui/pseuds/kurusui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a distant memory resurfaces, of wind and flowers and goodbyes.  —a villager B/king au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	visions are seldom all they seem

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday candice!!!  
> this is so bad i'm sorry

Once upon a time, there was a tyrannous king, or so the legends say.

\---

There is a boy and a girl.

The wind blows through her hair, and she laughs.

“Tobio, which flower is your favorite?”

They sit in the dry grass and look at the sunset. Flowers rest on top of her head, woven together intricately by tiny hands.

“I like the white ones, Hitoka,” he replies. Neither is old enough to understand the symbolism.

Around them a light breeze shakes the trees, causing fallen leaves to float in the air. It’s getting cold.

They are content to sit there forever.

Suddenly a gust of wind sweeps through the forest, followed by a horde of horses and rogues. Torches light up the darkening sky, but the girl is scared.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” one asks. “The abandoned prince.” They jump off their horses. The boy is lifted up and examined. He is afraid.

The girl’s eyes are fearful. He looks down on her as if to say, “don’t worry”— he is much more scared.

Another rogue nods. They hoist him onto a horse without speaking to him, and before either realizes it he is leaving her.

“Tobio!” she yells. The men don’t look back.

She runs and she runs, and the flowers fall out of her hair one by one, but she can never catch up to him.

\---

The first glance he gets at his real parents, he is terrified.

They don’t even pretend to smile at him.

For six years he’d lived with a kind and caring mother, whose voice was soft; a father who worked hard, with rumbling laughter.

He hears the whispers around the castle.

“Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?”

“Wasn’t he supposed to be killed?”

All he knew was how oppressive the royal family was. Ironically, he remembers the time he sat on his father’s lap, thankful that he lived far away.

Tobio sits in his room where the lamp is never lit, where he is never checked up on. He stares out the window. It’s small and circular, but he can see the village.

The village where there was never any money to spare, where the people worked hard every day, where he was happy.

\---

Over the years, Hitoka still dreams about him.

Once she is playing in the creek and her dress is soaking wet. It seems so real, the way that the water splashes against her face.

“Shouyou, come look at this frog!” she chirps, holding it up with a huge grin. “It jumps high, just like you.”

Her friend comes bounding over the rocks, meeting her with the same enthusiasm. “It looks as cute as you,” he says. Its dark skin contrasts with the pale color of her hand.

“Hitoka! Shouyou! Come back, it’s time to eat!” her mother calls.

Hitoka gently places the frog on a damp rock, softly whispering, “I’ll won’t forget you.”

The next night she dreams that they go back to the riverside to look for it again, but it’s already gone.

She spends her days cheerfully, but never quite forgets the boy with the jet black hair.

\---

Tobio is 10 and in the middle of the night he wakes up to the knowledge that the king and queen are dead.

Kei, an advisor’s son, tells him, and he can’t believe it. He’s never believed anything Kei told him, not since the time that he said his parents loved him.

“There’s no way,” Tobio replies. The moonlight shines through the window, lighting up Kei’s face.

“I’m not lying,” Kei says, “Don’t you hear the footsteps?”

He does. Soldiers run through the hallways, amplifying the creaks in the floors. Outside, the people are cheering.

Tobio isn’t sure if he wants this to be true or not. On one hand, his parents were never around, but on the other— now he’s even more alone.

“Assassins have infiltrated,” Kei says, turning towards the door. “Hurry and go to the basement.”

Confused and astray, he follows without another word.

\---

For days the kingdom is in a flurry. The advisors tell him what to do, and he orders it, only because he doesn’t know what else to do. The guards are sent out to look for the saboteurs and subdue the villagers.

Tobio was never taught how to lead the country, and all of a sudden it’s his responsibility.

“Isn’t that taking advantage of the townspeople?” he asks naively when the counsel moves to raise the taxes.

They firmly shake their heads no— “We need money for the funeral of your parents”, and he wonders why it needs to be extravagant, but is too scared to ask.

He confides his doubts to Kei, because there is no one else.

“Just go with it,” he replies indifferently. “The people will hate you, but it doesn’t matter. It means we can eat whatever we want.”

For a second he has a vision of a blonde girl smiling, but waves it away and nods his head.

\---

Hitoka sits by the fireplace as her mother braids her hair.

“I don’t think this will be helpful to us,” her father says. “I feel bad for the poor boy, but with no one capable at the throne - someone so easily manipulated, we’ll only have to work harder.”

“It’s just Tobio, right?” she asks. Her parents’ tired faces tell her there is more to this than she understands.

Her mother sets down the hairbrush in her hand and lets go of the braid. “I’m sorry, honey,” her mother answers. “Go play with Shouyou.”

She walks out, sun about to set. Hitoka considers knocking on Shouyou’s door, but she hears the cries of his baby sister and decides against it.

Instead, she runs to the river and jumps in, droplets of water masking her tears.

\---

Six years later he takes the throne for real.

As he is crowned king he sheds all his doubts. By now he’s learned the type of selfish decisions he has to make, how his morality has to change. More soldiers are sent to the villages.

He stops looking outside the windows.

This is the only way to endure his guilt, he tells himself. This is what it means to rule a country.

Tobio no longer takes direct orders from his advisors, although they usually concur. He satisfies them, and they, in turn, don’t bother him.

He spends a lot of his time walking alone through the halls, steps echoing against the tall ceilings. The castle is so large that he hasn’t even been through all of it, but whenever he visits somewhere new, he finds that it is empty.

Kei sneaks up on him when he’s not paying attention. “Hey, Your Highness.”

It’s so casually rude, Tobio has the right to punish him right there. But as much as he hates that tone of voice, he knows that Kei is the only one who truly understands why.

“Yeah?” His reply is just as curt.

“I was down in the village just now,” Kei says, tauntingly as ever. “You did a great job of depriving them of all that they own.”

“Shut up.”

Sometimes Tobio doesn’t understand why he chooses to collect more money– to increase the size of the treasury by increasing rates every month? Or steal peasants away from their families– so he can have more servants?

“It’s like a game now,” Kei says to him. “Where even when you’re already winning, you insist on crushing the opposition.”

Something else he doesn’t understand is why Kei seems to answer all of his questions without satisfying him.

\---

“I heard a rumor that the king was lonely…”

\---

“I’m coming!” Hitoka calls to her mother, wiping the sweat off of her forehead. She ties a ribbon around her hair and grabs her bread basket.

These days she takes on three or four jobs a day from the nearby farmer families because of the shortage of workers. Instead of money, she gets food in return. Shouyou tells her sometimes to stop working so hard, because he’s concerned for her health. But now that her father’s died, she does everything she can to support her mother.

“Is it the Michimiya family today?” she asks as she opens the door.

Hitoka’s mother shakes her head without turning around, busy chopping carrots for the evening stew. “No– Natsu’s sick with a high fever, Shouyou’s in the fields, they need medicine. When you get back, deliver this to them.” She points her knife at the boiling pot.

“Got it,” she replies quickly, before dashing out the door. Natsu and the Hinata family are so important to her, she doesn’t take a second glance at the food on the table.

\---

“Excuse me!!” She yells as she swerves around the walking townspeople. Along the way, she meets Shouyou coming out of the fields. “Natsu’s ill, go home!” she shouts without stopping. He chases after her.

“The line in front of the apothecary’s really long today!” he shouts back, running beside her. His face is ridden with concern.

“Well, we’ll just have to get there as fast as we can!”

They stop in front of the queue, which is at least six people out the door. Panting, Shouyou secures a spot in the line.

“According to Saeko, the kingdom taxes got higher last week,” the customer in front of them complains, pulling out a bag of coins. “I’m worried that it’ll cost a fortune just to heal an aching leg, next thing you know everything we have’ll be the king’s,” he says and spits on the ground.

Shouyou taps him on the shoulder. “I know,” he agrees. “Hitoka, I’m telling ya.”

She looks apprehensive. It’s been ten years, but she still remembers the way he used to smile.

Since then, many things have changed because of the royal family’s tyrannical reign. Hitoka has no choice but to despise him for all he’s caused; her deteriorating diet, her mother’s chronic ailing, her father’s death. But she doesn’t cry at night out of anger; she cries out of pity.

\---

In the evening, a dark, shadowy figure comes to visit her.

“Yes?” Hitoka cracks the door open. There’s no need for her mother to know about this.

“We have a job for you.”

\---

Hitoka leaves a note on the table and grabs her cloak.

The assassin group has been planning ways to get rid of the kingdom’s leadership, and while she’s afraid, what’s most important to her is the pay. She is brave, and she can fight too, she tells herself.

Tonight they have a reconnaissance mission scheduled, and she’s anxious.

Hitoka follows along as they sneak into the castle. The infiltrators watch the guards move, and she tenses with every step.

Once they get inside, she’s assigned to look for the treasury. She doesn’t recognize the person who told her to- so she sneaks away and follows the group headed to search for the king’s room.

The hallways are dark and tall and she wonders how many people live here.

The sound of armor scares the leader. “Let’s leave, we have another mission planned for Saturday.” They slip away, but Hitoka stays behind, intending to explore the castle, and maybe find Tobio.

Her footsteps are not as light as she hoped. Before she knows it the guards have found her.

“A village girl,” the soldier says. She squeaks in fright. “Look around, there could be more infiltrators!”

Hitoka feels so regretful now; was it worth it to get caught, when she couldn’t even get a glimpse of the king? “I’m sorry, Mother… Shouyou…” she whispers, not knowing what would happen to her.

They order her to walk in front of them, a spear pointed at her back. She’s brought to the throne room.

On top of a magnificent chair sits the boy with the jet black hair.

Hitoka is afraid for her life; she doesn’t dare look up at his face. She holds her head down in a bow and wonders briefly if he recognizes her, or even remembers her.

“What should we do with her?” a guard asks at last. It feels like hours before he responds.

“...Spare her.”

She can’t tell if he remembers her.

\---

Tobio doesn’t quite know why, but he feels like he needs to go outside. After years of shutting himself off from the people, for some reason he longs for a new connection.

He tells his advisors, but they let him go without protest. He’s sure it’s because they’d rather he die anyways.

Kei takes his crown and cape, and comments, “Better watch out, if you’re caught your subjects will surely jump at the chance to attack you.” It’s said with a lot of snark, but at the same time Tobio thinks he’s the only one that would even care if he was gone.

“Will do.”

He exits from the back of the castle, dressed in plain clothes. Most of the kingdom has never seen his face, but he wears a cloak for good measure.

As he steps into the fresh air, he wonders how he went without this for so long.

The roads are beaten, Tobio notices. There are no stones to guide his footing– only ones to hinder his path. “Ow,” he mutters when he almost trips on one. Were he at the castle, he could immediately get a nurse to help him, and order punishment for the person who left it there in his path…

He keeps walking, and the first village comes up in his view. He pulls his cloak hood tighter, and hopes no one notices him.

The town is full of people chattering, helping each other out, working hard. For a second, he feels envious. How could these people be happier than him? How could he do what he does to them?

Tobio keeps walking until he reaches the forest.

It feels familiar, he thinks. A distant memory resurfaces, of wind and flowers and goodbyes.

\---

When he returns to the castle, he feels the urge to go back outside. No matter how many times Tobio goes back in the weeks to follow, he can never get rid of the pull the realm has. And seeing as it makes no difference to anyone else, he keeps returning.

Every time he passes through the village instead of going around, and every time there is a deeper pang of uncertainty in his stomach.

The stream is overflowing today, the day after a heavy rain. He dips his hand into the rush of flowing water and shivers, because it feels so different from his glasses in the castle dining room.

He almost wants to jump right in…

Tobio settles for taking his hood off and feeling the air around his face. The birds chirp around him, and he actually feels relaxed.

The bushes rustle behind him.

“Oh.”

He pulls his hood on, turns around and there stands a village girl, basket of bread in hand.  Maybe it was too late.

If it’s too late, anything he does won’t matter. He looks at her face.

Her eyes are charming, her glance inquisitive– her hair is topped with flowers.

\---

She’s sure, as she stares at him standing by the stream, that he’s the boy from all those years ago. And it terrifies her, because he is also the current king, who should be surrounded by guards, and she’s going to be kidnapped and never seen again.

But neither of them moves for the longest time, and it is completely unnerving.

“Aren’t you… the king?” she whispers, as if he should be taking her away immediately.

“Aren’t you… a villager?” he replies, as if she should be trying to hurt him.

“You’re… Tobio…” Hitoka says, trailing off, because if he didn’t remember her–

“...Hitoka?”

She freezes.

The name comes to him in a flash.

\---

“I can’t call my guards on you, because they aren’t here. I wouldn’t do it anyway,” he says. Words fall out of his mouth.

“I’m not going to attack you, I don’t–” she struggles to find her words. “I can’t believe this.”

Both of them are shocked into silence. Tobio wishes he could say that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but can any of his actions back him up at all?

Hitoka tries to speak again. “What are you doing here?”

“... I don’t know,” he says, turning away. “I needed to escape.” As his mouth closes, he realizes how selfish he sounds.

“Escape from torturing your subjects?” she questions. He winces.

His mouth opens again, but nothing comes out.

“Escape from remembering your morality?” Hitoka presses. There is something there, she knows it.

“I don’t know,” he repeats. Suddenly, he can’t remember anything.

“Did you forget?” she asks. “Did you get too self-absorbed after living in the castle with more money than I will ever see?”

She hesitates, then shouts louder: “Or were you just lonely?” Don’t you dare use this as an excuse, she thinks, crossing her fingers. Don’t you dare.

“I was ignorant,” Tobio finally says. “Ignorant, and blind, and self-absorbed. Correction, I am.”

She drops her basket on the ground, and the loaves of bread fall out. Quickly, she picks them up and dusts them off as well as possible. “...Not much bread to spare these days,” she murmurs before he can ask.

“Help me,” he says hastily.

“Excuse me?” Hitoka walks around to face him.

“Please help me,” Tobio says again. “I need to be a better king.”

“And you’re asking me…” She waits for an answer.

“I can’t ask anyone else.”

She believes he is sincere, but she needs to make sure that he isn’t saying this because of her, but because he cares about his people.

“Wait here.”

\---

“I need to make sure you won’t tell anyone about this,  Shouyou. This is a matter of trust.”

“Okay, okay Hitoka, what could it be that’s this important?”

She drags Shouyou by the shirt along the dirt path, crossing her fingers again that he hasn’t left, that he’s going to be there waiting for her.

They turn the bend in the forest, and he’s still there, sitting on the rocks. He looks up when he hears them coming, and stands up apprehensively when he sees Shouyou.

“Hey… who is this?!” Shouyou yells, turning to Hitoka.

“I told you to be quiet!” she hisses. “Tell him,” she says to Tobio, pointing at Shouyou.

“Tell him what?” Tobio asks. Hitoka was worried he would get aggressive… but he doesn’t seem to be.

“Tell him what you told me. Convince him, and I’ll help you.”

Shouyou struggles to get out of Hitoka’s grasp, but she’s relentless. “Can you explain first?!”

Tobio is hesitant, but sees the village and its people in his mind. “I’m the king,” he starts.

“Hitoka, is this for real?!” Shouyou asks. “This bastard–”

“Please listen to him,” she says. “Please.” Tobio looks to her, and she smiles sadly.

“Please forgive me,” Tobio asks. “I’m a terrible person, and-” He pauses, thinking that Shouyou was going to interrupt, but there is no sound. In front of him, both Shouyou and Hitoka listen patiently. “And I’ve been terrible to my subjects…”

\---

Months later, the kingdom slowly starts to show signs of change.

The counsel is less than pleased with this turn of events, but Tobio ignores them.

Kei tells him one day, “It seems like you’ve gained favor with the peasants, Your Highness.” He looks almost happy about it.

“It’s more like they’ve gained favor with me,” Tobio replies.

Hitoka stops associating with the rebel group, although with the new attitude of the king, the group seems to be breaking up naturally.

“People can finally fix their houses,” she tells him on a spring evening. “And go to the doctor without giving up their food. Mom is getting better… Natsu stops getting sick every 2 weeks. Shouyou doesn’t have to work for other farmers every day.”

“I haven’t done enough,” Tobio says genuinely. “I should have given things up so much sooner.” They sit in a field with dry grass, flowers surrounding them.

“You’re getting so much better,” Hitoka says, weaving stems together.

\---

Tobio doesn’t dare tell her until the threats have all passed. Despite the kingdom’s changes, there are still assassins coming after him, but they subside as the years go by.

He says it on a summer afternoon at the age of 25: “I’m kind of in love with you.” It’s another selfish thing to say and he knows it.

“I’m never lonely thanks to you,” he says. “And I just wanted to say-”

“I’m in love with you too,” she says, with the lightest of kisses.

\---

Once upon a time, there was a king who was changed… by a compassionate queen.

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t do romance????? what???  
> what a disappointment clarissa  
> im so sorry for writing this


End file.
